


You Were Right

by Joking611



Series: Cari'ssi'mi Drabbles [38]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Cari'ssi'mi, Emotions, F/F, Fictober 2019, Melancholy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-08 00:08:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21226526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joking611/pseuds/Joking611
Summary: Aethyta hears the words she never thought she'd hear





	You Were Right

**Author's Note:**

> Fictober 2019 prompt #19 - “Yes, I admit it, you were right.”

Liara gazed into the pit. Haughtily. Challengingly. She was in her element here, and she knew it.

Slowly, she started down the stairs. A horde of husks charged towards her, but each was easily dispatched.

A quick burst from her Locust caught some. Others captured in a singularity, detonated by a throw from Shepard, ever at her side. The human’s intensity of emotion was easily read, but Liara’s expression never wavered.

It was as if the husks weren’t enough of a threat. If anything, Liara seemed… bored.

“She’s changed.” The voice was sad.

Aethyta just grunted in acknowledgement, eyes never straying from the vid. This conversation wasn’t new to either of them, having started when she’d been keeping Liara under surveillance on Illium.

The lighting could have been better, but there was no danger of mistaking the maiden for anyone else. She had a degree of control that she’d lacked as child, and her obvious connection to Shepard was new, but her movements were the same. Reserved. Conservative. She expended just as much effort as was required, and no more. There was always something in reserve.

“I had such plans, you know. A path for her to walk.” She sighed. “She’s nothing like I intended her to be,” the other matriarch continued.

“Intended?” Aethyta deftly poured another shot, bartending skills as sharp as if she hadn’t already had several.

“Planned. Hoped. She’s not who I expected her to become.”

“It was never your choice, Nezzy. Ever. She was always going to be who she was going to be.” She chucked. The girl had turned out more like her father than either of them had ever expected. Or feared. Of course, the ‘dumbass human’ at Liara’s side might have had something to do with that.

Aethyta saw the appeal. She had to admit the spectre did look good in her uniform.

Their attention returned to the vid where the battle in the Hollows was ending. Wrex stepped into view, reveling in his victory, nearly knocking Shepard to the floor when he clapped her on the back. Then there was an altercation of some kind with some of the krogan who surrounded him. It didn’t last long before Wrex ended it, the battlemaster smashing one of the others with an exceptionally well delivered headbutt. Aethyta chuckled again. Wrex was who’d forwarded the footage, after all. Aethyta wouldn’t be surprised if he’d done it for no other reason than to show off that single blow.

“But she could have been so much. She’s so intelligent. So driven. Think of what Thessia could have been if Liara had chosen politics. Or diplomacy. She could’ve have made a name for herself. The House would have been admired for millennia.”

“Not much chance of people forgetting the name T’Soni, you know,” grumbled Aethyta. “But the kid’s making a name for herself anyway.”

“It’s just a waste of potential.”

Aethyta’s eyes blazed with anger. “She is _not_ a waste. The kid’s exceptional! Better than _we_ deserve for a kid, anyway. Yeah, she may have fallen for some soldier, but we all have our faults.” She took a drink. “If we win this goddess-damned war, it’s going to be because of those two.” She slammed the empty glass on the table. “And if we lose, well,” a death’s head grin. “She’ll be surrounded by one hell of an honor guard when she stands before Athame.”

Benezia just looked at her placidly, finally sighing.

”Fine. I admit it. You were right. She needed to find her own way.”

“Here’s to words I thought you'd never say,” Aethyta filled her glass yet again, saluting her former bondmate.

“And you only had to wait until I was dead to hear them.”

“Yeah, that part sucks.”

Aethyta turned off the vid, Benezia becoming one with the shadows as the glow of the interface faded.

“Still love you though,” she said to the empty chair as she finished her drink.


End file.
